Hindi
Ritwik Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara scores over Satyajit Ray’s Charulata
PANAJI: The T20 of Indian Cinema – the top 20 films made in India since the first film ‘Raja Harichandra’ by D G Phalke in 1913 – has thrown up Ritwik Ghatak’s Bengali film ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’ as the best film of the last 96 years.
After a nation-wide poll conducted by the Entertainment Society of Goa to which 1.9 million people responded, the names were announced at a gala event held here to coincide with the ongoing 40th International Film Festival of India. The ballot closed at 5 pm on 29 November. It was launched at the hands of Dev Anand in Mumbai, and Suniel Shetty and Sameera Reddy in New Delhi, early last month.
According to the selections, cine master craftsman Satyajit Ray finds mention thrice in the list, while Guru Dutt and Bimal Roy figure twice each.
In all, 12 Hindi films feature in the list, with Bengali coming second. Interestingly, the voters have selected Satyajit Ray’s film as the second most popular, but also voted for the Apu Trilogy which includes ‘Aparjito’ and ‘Apur Sansar’.
The event was presided over by Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat at the Open Air Theatre of Kala Academy, where a fashion show was staged with Pooja Shukla as the designer, in the presence of celebrities like Goa Assembly Speaker Pratap Singh Rane, Film Festivals Director S M Khan, and film personalities Aftab Shivdasani, Sayali Bhagat, Madhur Bhandarkar, Vishal Bhardwaj, and Riya Sen, and captured the changing fashions in cinema over the decades.
The top 20 films selected are:
Meghe Dhaka Tara – Ritwik Ghatak (Bengali, 1960)
Charulata – Satyajit Ray (Bengali, 1964)
Pather Panchali – Satyajit Ray (Bengali, 1955)
Sholay – Ramesh Sippy (Hindi, 1975)
Do Bigha Zameen – Bimal Roy (Hindi, 1953)
Pyaasa – Guru Dutt (Hindi, 1957)
Bhuvan Shome – Mrinal Sen (Hindi, 1969)
Garam Hawa – M S Sathyu (Hindi, 1973)
Mother India – Mehboob Khan (Hindi, 1957)
Ghattashradha – Girish Kassarvali (Kannada, 1977)
Elippathayam – Adoor Gopalakrishnan (Malayalam, 1981)
Mughal-e-Azam – K Asif (Hindi, 1960)
Nayagan – Mani Ratnam (Tamil, 1987)
Kaghaz Ke Phool – Guru Dutt (Hindi, 1959)
Apu Triology (Pather Panchali 1955, Aparajito 1956, Apur Sansar 1959) – Satyajit Ray (Bengali)
Sant Tukaram – Vishnupant Govind Damle, Sheikh Fattelal (Marathi, 1936)
Jaane Bhi Do Yaro – Kundan Shah (Hindi, 1983)
Guide – Vijay Anand (Hindi, 1965)
Madhumati – Bimal Roy (Hindi, 1958)
Anand – Hrishikesh Mukherjee (Hindi, 1971)
Hindi
Dhurandhar the revenge storms past Rs 1,000 crore in a week, rewrites box office records
Aditya Dhar’s spy thriller sets fastest run to Rs 1,000 crore with record-breaking weekday hold
MUMBAI: The box office has a new juggernaut—and it is moving at breakneck speed. Dhurandhar the revenge has smashed past the Rs 1,000 crore mark worldwide in just a week, clocking a staggering Rs 1,088 crore and resetting the rules of the blockbuster game.
Backed by Jio Studios and B62 Studios, and directed by Aditya Dhar, the spy action sequel opened to the biggest weekend ever for an Indian film globally—and then refused to slow down. Unlike typical tentpole releases that taper off after Sunday, this one powered through the weekdays with rare muscle, posting Rs 64 crore on Monday, Rs 58 crore on Tuesday, Rs 49 crore on Wednesday and Rs 53 crore on Thursday.
The numbers stack up to a formidable first-week haul. India collections stand at Rs 690 crore nett and Rs 814 crore gross, while overseas markets have chipped in Rs 274 crore, taking the worldwide total to Rs 1,088 crore in just eight days.
The film’s opening weekend alone delivered Rs 466 crore, laying the foundation for what is now being billed as the fastest climb to the Rs 1,000 crore club in Indian cinema. Every single day of its first week has set fresh benchmarks, from the highest opening weekend to the strongest weekday hold—metrics that typically separate hits from phenomena.
A sequel to the earlier hit Dhurandhar, the film has not just built on its predecessor’s momentum but obliterated previous records, emerging as the biggest global blockbuster run by an Indian film to date.
At this pace, the film is not merely riding a wave—it is creating one.
